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Why is the Toyota Sienna minivan’s styling out of this world?
(UPDATED FROM 3/4/2024) AUTOMOTIVE VIEWS NEWSWIRE — It’s no accident that the Toyota Sienna minivan stands out from the crowd when it comes to styling. Disturbed by declining sales, the automaker decided to give it […]
Design Notes
Somebody’s going to hell for the 2018-26 Honda Odyssey
(EXPANDED FROM 7/9/2018) The headline may seem overly dramatic. After all, ugly car design doesn’t have nearly the negative consequences of, say, melting the polar ice caps. However, visual blight has been proven to increase […]
Links
Car and Driver road test of 1966 Toyota Corona anticipates Japanese ascendancy
(UPDATED FROM 1/3/2024) A July 1966 Car and Driver road test of the Toyota Corona insisted that if this car was “typical of what the Japanese automobile industry is producing, European manufacturers deserve to lose […]
Data Dive
Was the 1949-51 Ford the end of the sensibly-sized ‘standard’ American car?
(EXPANDED FROM 4/26/2023) Reasonable people can debate when the Big Three automakers stopped building sensibly-sized cars during the postwar period. For example, one might point to the 1956 Ford because it was only slightly larger […]
Design Notes
Toyota ruined the Scion xB by making it too big
(EXPANDED FROM 1/22/2021) Toyota has had an enviably strong track record here in the United States, but it has had a few misses. They include its mishandling of the ill-fated Scion subbrand. Although one could […]
Photo Essay
What is a Toyota dealer trying to sell us Americans?
I had to get my Toyota serviced this week, so let’s take a quick look at what the Japanese automaker is currently trying to sell us Americans. Of course, this is but one data point […]
Design Notes
Will cars with ‘crying-eyes’ styling withstand the test of time?
(EXPANDED FROM 2/18/2022) The automotive media tend to treat even the ugliest styling trends like the courtiers who ignore when the emperor has no clothes. I thus found it refreshing to see Sajeev Mehta critique […]
Design Notes
Early indications of Toyota embracing its inner Virgil Exner
(EXPANDED FROM 10/25/2021) The above photograph shows the beginning of Toyota’s embrace of sci-fi styling. In the foreground, the second-generation Sienna minivan (which was produced from 2003 to 2009) had simple but attractive styling (Wikipedia, […]
Data Dive
Why did Mitsubishi fail in the United States?
(EXPANDED FROM 2/9/2024) There was good news and bad news about Mitsubishi’s U.S. sales in 2024. The good news: Sales were up 25 percent, led by its Mirage economy cars. The bad news: This was […]